American Knights: The Untold Story of the Men of the Legendary 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion (General Military) Hardcover – September 22, 2015

While many histories of the American military during World War II try to include both the overall strategic reality and the ground level experiences of the men (and a few women, in the aid stations and on the ships) who fought, few do as good a job as "American Knights, The Untold Story of the Men of the Legendary 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion." While the book does give us an overall view of the unit that fought its way from North Africa through Sicily and Italy up through France and all the way to Berchtesgaden (with maps at important point) the most impressive thing (to me) about the history here is that it managed to tell the story from the point of view of the men on the ground during the battles and at other points in the evolution of the unit portrayed.The writer, Victor Failmezger, makes it clear that his decision to write this history evolved as he read his way through the various first-hand accounts in the letters (along with a few news reports) describing the work of the 601st. Rarely a page goes by when the reader is not getting a first-hand description of some "action" --- most of them of the "small" kind experienced by those who fought the war. Small parts of something bigger. One good example (among many) begins "By 0830 there could be no doubt that the Germans had launched a major offensive..." Described in this section of "American Knights..." is that German counter attacks of February 29, 1944, against the American positions still at Anzio. Within a few pages, Failmezger gives the reader the first hand description of how the tank destroyers held back against a serious German push against the Anzio force. One key part of the American defense resulted in what was called "Welch's Boneyard," a description given to one part of the fight. The after-action report only does partial justice to the reality described in the first-hand accounts earlier in the chapter: "The enemy's successes yesterday were limited to penetration of our left flank to a depth of about 700 yards on a 1,000 yard front, and the capture of our positions on the CISTERNA road immediately norht of the ISOLA BELLA crossroad. The enemy lost nearly 200 prisoners, 14 tanks, and a great number killed and wounded, including many elementary grouping for attack but unable to get underway due to our artillery fire."Well, OK. But the earlier descriptions of the fighting as it was taking place, and the work of Thomas Peter Welch, who served as a lieutenant, make the book the value that it is.This history traces the entire history of the 601st in detail, from the original decision to create a "tank destroyer" unit to the final days the U.S. soldiers spent winning the victory in the ETO over the Nazis (and the remnants of the Axis). The book helps the readers understand more of what has been reported in "An Army at Dawn," with detailed work on the steep "learning curve" men had to go through during the North Africa campaign and the weaknesses of U.S. materials. From the original "tank destroyers" mounted on half tracks through the various evolutions of the equipment, the book also gives a decent sense of how American industry worked with the military (sometimes not completely meshed) to create the weapons the warriors needed. Interestingly, the three-inch destroyer remained the key weapon throughout the war.The campaigns were intense, proving the old saying that military work is weeks of boredom punctuated by hours (or days) of sheer terror. Although all the campaign descriptions are good, the updates from Anzio are probably as good as any battle history centered on the men and their machines can get.Perhaps every work of history is in some ways a corrective to earlier works, but "American Knights..." provides the reader with some surprising correctives. For example, the first of many important photographers shows three sergeants from the 601st standing in the blasted out picture window at Berchtestgaden, Hitler's mountaintop retreat in Bavaria. Those who have followed the stories that have come out of World War II may remember that in "Band of Brothers" the capture of that place was attributed to the First Infantry Division. Apparently, there were more men there than just those form the men of the 101st Airborne. Tank destroyers, part of the U.S. Third Infantry Division, weren't mentioned (to my memory).Why is this detail important? For all the millions of men who fought in the Second World War for the USA, most of their stories are buried under the stories of the few units that went Hollywood, for better or worse. While virtually everyone who has tried to pay attention to the details of the Battle of the Bulge knows that the 101st Airborne Division did most of the fighting at Bastogne and that the relief came first there from Patton's armor, the dozens of other divisions active in the battles surrounding that decisive battle are underplayed. There is almost so much of the massive history that Hollywood can depict.Those of us who devote some time to hoping that eventually each of the units that played all those roles will eventually have its history told this well are rewarded by "American Knights." For me this is doubly important because of the descriptions of the "Second Bulge" (the U.S. response to Nordwind and the Colmar Pocket) that involved the 601st. One of the many mysteries of many families whose fathers (and in our case, mothers as well) served in combat is the vagueness with which the history was told by those closest to us. For example, my father's Bronze Star sat in a place of honor in our home in New Jersey for years, but when I tried to get him to explain how he earned it, he would only say, "I got lost one night and got lucky." The citation read for his work in combat during the "Rhineland Campaign." As children, we would have been hard pressed to know where the "Rhineland" was, let alone how it fit into the overall importance of the war those 15 or 16 million men (and women) fought and came home from.There are many other contributions to historiography that Failmezger provides. Following Ernie Pyle, Failmezger identifies each soldier he describes not only by name, but by home town. This includes both those who survived the war and those who didn't (the KIAs or MIAs...).And finally, there is this: "World War II and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder." This brief five page summary in the Epilogue comes to the following point: "This letter [about Lt. Tom Welch cited earlier] brings up the question of whether or not Welch and millions of other World War II veterans suffered from what is now called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). During World War II it was called battle fatigue. The short answer is of course they did..." As recently as a New York Times article in September 2015, this question is still a significant one. Recently, the Times reported on the high number of suicides in one Marine battalion that served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Doubtless, the experience of PTSD has been common since the first wars fought by human beings. (I've already written that The Odyssey is probably the first great story about PTSD, with the protagonists Post-Troy nightmares vividly presented from the storms at sea to the dangers they all faced, right down to the numbing escapes they needed...).But we need more discussion of this, because since some of us worked to unveil the reality of what we then called "Post Vietnam Syndrome" mental health professionals have dumbed down the significance of combat trauma and its qualitative difference from other "traumas." This is not to belittle the impact of other traumas, but as you read "American Knights..." consider that some of the men depicted in the book were in combat for more than 500 days, not always in "the line" but almost always just around the corner from it. My father's unit, the 44th Infantry Division, arrived in France after D-Day and was "in the line" for more than 240 days (according to the final letter from the Commanding General thanking the men in May 1945). That is a grand canyon of reality different from the experience of a young person going through a romantic beak up, and it is almost obscene to compare the two. Yet, as recently as September 20, 2015, the New York Times can report that one VA counselor told a PTSD'd ex-Marine to think about it like it was breaking up with your girl. Clearly, we need to be reminded, forever, not only how wars were fought and won, but what the long-term cost of those wars has been, not only to those who didn't mack it "back," but to those who did, whether with their bodies shredded, or with memories that would yield nightmares (or worse) forever and ever.

An excellent history of perhaps the most important battalion-sized American unit of World War II. Given the Armor Corp’s very late admission of one of armor’s most important functions, the tank destroyer battalions had to take on much larger units equipped with much better tanks. They started the war with incredibly obsolete, cobbled together equipment that even the Italian Army would have disdained. This wasn’t such a problem when America fielded a new tank that for a year or so actually was the best tank among the Western allies, but after the Germans up-gunned and up-armored the Mark IV and fielded the Panther and Tiger, the tank destroyer battalions were forced to take on these superior tanks alongside the criminally under-gunned, under-armored Shermans. Luckily they were soon equipped with the M-10, an excellent tank destroyer even though still unable to penetrate a Panther’s or Tiger’s frontal armor at medium to long range.This is the complete war history of the 601st, from the earliest days of obsolete lash-ups through every Western theater. It’s very thorough and an engaging read, exploring many aspects of life and combat operations in a tank destroyer battalion. It’s sometimes hard to read, even though the battalion’s gun companies led almost charmed lives considering the continuous danger they faced.Highly recommended for anyone interested in the war, armored vehicle development and tactics, or just men performing under extreme conditions.

Failmezger's book is clearly a valuable addition to the existing historiography of the Tank Destroyer Branch during World War 2 and a noteworthy first effort. AMERICAN KNIGHTS, primarily through the dramatis personae of Lt Thomas Welch, successfully conveys a sense of what the soldiers serving with the 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion experienced in combat against Hitler's vaunted panzers - which in many instances were technologically superior to the weapons systems being employed by U.S. tank destroyer units. After reading about halfway through the book, however, I concluded that Failmezger had not met my admittedly narrow needs.The author set out to tell the story of the soldiers who served in the 601st TD Battalion, which he does effectively. However, some perspective and context is lost whenever individual stories predominate. For example, how did the supported infantry units view the accomplishments of the 601st TD Battalion? The answer, at best, is derived from anecdotal evidence as none of the relevant regimental or battalion After Action Reports are examined. This is an unfortunate omission because I believe those accounts could have made an even stronger case for the 601st TD Battalion being an invaluable battlefield partner for American foot soldiers fighting in North Africa, Italy, Southern France, and Germany.In addition to the narrative, there are numerous photographs and several maps in the center section of the book. The latter mainly consist of color reproductions of the battalion's area of operations at Anzio and several sketch maps of specific engagements.AMERICAN KNIGHTS will make a fine addition to the personal collections of general readers interested in World War 2. Historians hoping to leverage Failmezger's account for their own work - as I had - on the Mediterranean or Italian campaigns, Operation DRAGOON, and End of the War in Germany will have to look elsewhere.

As the United States entered the war it had already become clear that the key to defeating the German war machine would lie in stopping it's panzer formations. These formations had already cut with ease through the considerable armoured might of the British and French in Europe, and therefore the U.S considered that the solution was not necessarily to oppose them with more tanks, but in the formation of a new kind of unit - the 'Tank Destroyer' battalion.'Armoured Knights' is the story of one particular such battalion - the 601st - which was composed of some 1800 men who fought through some 546 days of conflict in some of the most famous conflicts of the period, from the desert campaign in North Africa, the Anzio landings in Italy, the Normandy invasion of occupied France, and finally to the heart of Germany itself.Most historical books are written after the fact by authors who never participated in the conflicts they describe themselves, or at best by a single individual who was there and describes his own personal corner of the war. 'American Knights' however is more unique in so far that it is primarily composed by reconstructing the diary entries and letters of a total of nine members of the 601st rather than just one, and also supported by the authors own research as well as official battalion records and other texts to give a book that is probably more detailed, more accurate, and more objective than most books written about the war.It is very detailed and very enlightening, and describes the actions of the 601st from the beginning of their involvement to the very end, as well as all of the events and issues that effected them along the way.The tank destroyer concept was a new one to the U.S, and one that was not without it's birthing and growing pains. This included the fact that at the point the 601st entered the war America did not even have a specialist vehicle for the role and had to endure with the already obsolescent M6 (no more than a small 37mm gun mounted on a flatbed truck) and M3 (an archaic French 75mm field gun left over from WW1 mounted on an M3 half-track) tank destroyers, and the book describes how the 601st struggled in their early battles against a generally more advanced German opponent.Even when the 601st adopted the popular and effective M10 (which the book describes as having an inauspicious debut after its first four M10's were destroyed in the desert campaign without ever letting off a shot) as a dedicated tank destroyer, their struggles continued. Composition of the battalion would change repeatedly, as would command, and no one ever seemed to truly know the best way to utilize them, which resulted in the battalion being used for a myriad of roles ranging from indirect artillery support, reconnaissance, as traditional tank forces providing close support for advancing infantry, and even as 'snipers' picking off entrenched enemy positions at distance with direct fire.The book describes all of the actions that the battalion participated in, from their initial landings in North Africa during Operation Torch that proved to be more difficult than anticipated, the famous rout at the Kasserine pass, vindication in North Africa as the Germans were finally driven out, Sicily, Monte Cassino, the Anzio stalemate (described by some Germans as a huge self-imposed American prisoner of war camp as they struggled to break out from their initial beach head), the breakout for Rome, the 'other battle of the Bulge' at the Colmar Pocket, to assaulting the Siegfried Line and Germany itself.Of course the battalion also had to deal with all of the more mundane aspects of the war, from their initial volunteering or recruitment, training maneuvers in Carolina in which the tank destroyer concept was first tested, friendly fire, the weather (including the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that was suspected by some to be the result of U.S bombers using the crater for target practice), the Mafia run black market into which much of the supplies and equipment intended for the battalion seemed to disappear, trench foot, venereal disease, propaganda (from the dulcet tones of the infamous 'Anzio Annie'), and even a chance run in with a nine year old girl who would go on to become an actress of some repute.It also helps explore - and indeed explode - some of the common myths and assumptions about the equipment the battalion used.Too many people who's only education of armoured warfare seems to come from playing 'World of Tanks' like to repeat meaningless platitudes about how 'vehicle/gun X' couldn't take out a Tiger/Panther, how the open topped nature of U.S tank destroyers was a danger and a hinderance to their crews, how vehicles like the M18 Hellcat were superior to the M10 because of their great speed, or the M36 Jackson superior because of its bigger gun etc. The M10 however proved to be an incredibly popular vehicle.Those 'experts' forget that whilst a Tigers 88mm gun may out range the M10's 76mm, most armoured battles occurred at ranges under 1000m and sometimes much less - well within the 76mm's effective range. Armoured battles also rarely occurred under ideal conditions for the Germans, so whilst the book does contain examples of U.S tank destroyers being out gunned on the wide open, unobstructed plains of North Africa, it more frequently contains examples of well trained, well lead U.S tank destroyers in well covered pre-prepared ambush positions, taking out technically and numerically superior German forces.Whilst there are admissions in the book to not lingering in towns for fear of snipers in light of the open topped nature of the M10, it is also stated that more commonly the open top was popular because the greatest fear for crews was vehicle fires, and it allowed them to bail out easily and rapidly. It is also stated as fact that casualties as a result of air bursting artillery were almost unheard of. Meanwhile the M18 was considered 'too fast' and with an inferior gun, where as the M36 was unpopular despite it's larger gun due to its gasoline engine (the M10 used a diesel engine) which resulted in an increased number of those aforementioned dreaded vehicle fires.The back of the book contains some interesting appendices regarding the technical information pertaining to the M10, as well as comments from battalion members regarding the German armoured vehicles that opposed them. Also included is an battalion table of organisation and equipment.There are literally hundreds of books which talk about tanks, tank regiments, and famous tank commanders of WWII, but very few indeed that talk about the tank destroyers - especially among the Western Allies - that played a small but important part in the conflict. 'American Knights' is one of these few and provides an interesting and illuminating look at this little known and under appreciated short lived experiment in armoured conflict.

I was very happy to receive this book+will give it to a relative in the USA.I am in the UK.Our Uncle was in this unit but sadly died fighting.He as well as others mentioned.Respect.